Three good things. Every day.

cleaning

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I seem to be stuck on a delayed posting schedule, but here are some of the things I accomplished yesterday:

I did some more deep cleaning of our kitchen – scrubbing cabinet fronts, sweeping the floors, getting rid of counter clutter.

I registered for a grad school class on reading interventions through the University of Phoenix.

I made my own dust spray and tried it out by dusting our guest room. It seemed to make my dusting at least a little more effective. Daisy didn’t like it much – in the afternoon when she poked her head in there, she started barking at the combination of the minty smell from the dust spray and our big green exercise ball, which has always scared her a little.

Sorry that these updates seem to be creeping later and later, but here are some of the things I did yesterday:

I cleaned out our fridge. And not just throwing out old things that were past their prime (though there was definitely some of that) – I also scrubbed down the shelves, took the drawers out and washed them, etc. It has been three years since we moved into this place. It was definitely time.

I cleared off the top of the fridge, which had become a giant mess of things we don’t use very often, and reorganized it and some of our other kitchen storage space.

I started watching Lost Girl on Netflix streaming, which I’m really enjoying. I may or may not have watched six episodes yesterday. I may or may not plan on watching as much again today. (But only as a reward after I get some cleaning done – my parents are coming to visit!)

I did get up and do yoga again this morning, but it’s not one of my three things today. Here’s what I did:

I finished cleaning the bathroom. Yay!

I cooked one of my favorite grain salads for dinner – a sort of Tex-Mex quinoa with black beans. The recipe’s at the end of the post for anyone who’s interested.

I found myself a new game to play – and I’m super excited about it. It’s called Avadon, and it’s a single-player RPG that’s very story-focused – it’s almost like a choose your own adventure book, where your decisions as a player shape the way the game unfolds. I played through the free demo today, and I’m about to buy it so that I can play the rest of the game.

Combine the quinoa and water, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer 15-20 minutes until liquid is absorbed. Meanwhile, chop veggies and combine everything else. Stir in quinoa, and let sit for 1-2 hours so flavors can combine. (Or don’t – it’s almost as good freshly made).

I like to eat this straight up as a room-temperature salad, but J prefers it as a burrito filling in flour tortillas.

Today was another very uneventful day for me, but I did get a few things done:

I started my day off with yoga again. My hope is that eventually, this becomes routine – like starting my day off with brushing my teeth – and I won’t be posting about it any more. (Collective wisdom says it takes about three weeks to form a habit, although that might be bogus.) But right now, every day that I actually do it feels like a triumph – one more step along the road of forming that new habit.

I seem to be cleaning our bathroom in stages right now. Today, I tackled our shower. Tomorrow, maybe the sink and the mirror?

I made delicious (and simple) guacamole for myself for lunch today to use up an avocado, and mixed in some black beans to add a little protein.

Here’s what I tossed together:

1 avocado

1 clove garlic, minced

Juice from 1/2 a lime

Black beans (about 1/2 cup?)

Salt and chipotle pepper to taste (maybe around 1/2 tsp salt and a few dashes of chipotle)

I mushed all of this together with a fork, then added 5-10 cherry tomatoes, sliced into quarters, and ate it with tortilla chips.

I spent most of today being a bum – reading things on the Internet, playing various games on my computer, and avoiding getting dressed. But I did manage to squeeze in a few actual accomplishments, too:

I got up and did yoga again this morning! (I skipped yesterday morning, but I went for a long walk which kind of makes up for it.)

I cleaned the toilet! And I plan to clean the rest of the bathroom in the next day or two – Internet, hold me accountable for this please. If I havent posted that it’s done by Wednesday, give me a hard time about it.

I made a real dinner – Athenian Pasta Primavera. Which was pretty tasty, and relatively easy – definitely something I can add to our summer dinner rotation. I did have to substitute fresh basil for the mint, though, because the guy who mows our lawn mowed down our mint plant. (To be fair, though, I planted it in a patch of our yard that’s mostly weeds, so it probably wasn’t particularly clear that I actually wanted it to be growing there – especially since mint grows like a weed around here. We’ll see if it bounces back or not.)